After spending a while on the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, we have finally finished. At first, I didn't really understand this play at all, and I didn't get any of the deeper meanings in it. As I looked at it more closely while annotating, though, I was beginning to see the underlying messages within it. The class discussions that we had helped a lot, along with the articles that we read about it. When split up into groups to read these articles, I got the Spectre article. Basically the point in that article is that Shakespeare controls everything. He decided Rosencrantz's and Guildenstern's fate, and they knew that. So I thought that was a really interesting and good point, and I definitely agree with that viewpoint.
Since we are now done with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, we started the book Ceremony. I think that this is going to be an interesting read, after learning about all of the background information that we talked about in class. But it's also going to be tough to figure out, so I'm interested to see how this goes.
To prepare for the AP exam that is quickly approaching, we have started practicing writing more essays by doing more closed prompts. After trying these in class, I now know that this is something I will need to work on before taking the exam in order to do well.
I had a lot of the same ideas as you when it came to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I found it very difficult to find deeper meanings in the book. I think that the summary and analysis blog post helped me understand the play better because it helped me put all my thoughts about the play in one place and after I wrote the plot summary I could see the themes more clearly. When you talk about seeing the underlying message what messages did you see? Now coming back to Ceremony I thought the overall plot of the story was very interesting but it was a hard book to read because you have to follow all of Tayo's memories and thoughts. Did you have a hard time with the book? Also did you enjoy the book as much as you had thought you would? I'm super nervous for this AP exam and it's coming up fast!!! I think the practice essays in class are also helping me! How do you feel about the multiple choice part? I know for me the analyzing makes me nervous...hopefully we'll both feel comfortable by the time the exam comes around!
ReplyDeleteMehar, I think that, reflecting on this whole year and all of the literature that we have covered, the explanations from Ms. Holmes and all of the readings that we have done about each piece we read explains more to me than any (reasonable) amount of time that I can spend analyzing a book in my own time. It makes me wonder if there are analyses like these that I can read for books that I read in my own spare time, but honestly I doubt I would ever even consider using them for books that I am reading independently for pleasure.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the upcoming AP exam, I also feel that I really need to work on my timed essay-writing skills. Hopefully we get a little bit of practice in on this during class, but odds are we'll need to spend a little bit of time outside of class on this (as one would with most AP classes) to really feel ready for the AP exam.